Art of supplying fuel to explosive engines



April 12, 1927.

H. PEDERSEN ART OF SUPPLYING FUEL TO EXPLOSIVE ENGINES Filed April 14, 1922 INVENTOR HERMAN PEDERSEN ATTORNEY Patented- Apr. 12, 1927.

UNITED [,STATES nnmu v PEDEBSEN, or niu'nzenacn, NEW YORK.

ART or sUrPLYme FUEL T :exrnosrvn enemas.

Application filed April 14, 1922.- Serial No. 552,804.

My invention relates'to improvements in the art of supplying fuel to internal combustion engines, and in the apparatus which enables the fuel to be supplied to said engines'to thebest advantage. My invention is intended' further to provide means. for

- supplying acetylene gas as a fuel to engines of the class named in such a way that the gas can be efiectively, economically, and

in safely used. Acetylene gas, as is well known, is a powerful explosive when under pressure;

it can be used with a relatively large supply of'air, and its cost is far less than that of gasolene or other known engine fuels With the ordinary form of apparatus, however, and'particularly the form of carbureter, i t has notbeen possible to utilize acetylene gas because the relative intake of gas as compared to the air has been ,too large, and this is always the case where it is passed through the customary type of carbureter. 'In such case, great power is generated, but the engine soon becomes excessively hot, and it cannot be continuously used. Where the gas is properly controlled and provided with a sufiiciently large admixture of air, it affords a cheap and powerful fuel, and leaves far less sediment in the engine cylinder than does the ordinary hydrocarbon fuel.-

'30 My inventioneis intended to .overcome the difficulties heretofore existing, and to provide means for safely and economicall using acetylene, and theapparatus whlch show by way of example, and which forms a part of my invention, can be used also in connection with any other form of explosive gas. I prefer, however, to use acetylene gas with the apparatus, and-have shown it as adapted" for use for starting purposes, in

which case it can be used in connection with any usual t pe of gas engine, and with any form of carbureter and manifold. For such -an arrangement the acetylene is admitted "between the-carbureter'and the manifold, the

manifold is cut off from the'gas supply so as to admit air only, and the large volume of air and the necessary amount of acetylene .can be turned into the cylinder for starting Y the car. I have found by experiments that so this works much better on a cold engine than ordinary gas, as the acetylene contains a great number of heatunits, and also is a more powerful explosive. When thus used thecar is started very easily and economically, particularly as the acetylene is cheap, and a great amount of air is used, and the system works to the best possible advantage.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawmgs forming a part of this specification, in which similar reference characters indicate corresponding parts in all the Views. Flgure 1 is a side elevation showing how my improved app'ratus can be connected to aconventional, engine. I

Figure 2 is an enlarged detail longitudinal section of the valve mechanism for controlling the acetylene, and

Figure 3" is a longitudinal section of a simpler and. somewhat modified form of valve mechanism.

By way of example I have shown by improved system applied to a. conventional gas engine 10 having cylinders 11, and there may be any necessary number of them. These are provided with a manifold 12 and carbureter 13, both of whichparts may obviously be of any usual or preferred type. I have shown the customary connection 14 be-. tween the carbureter and the manifold, andto this connection I apply the casing 15 which can be provided witha nipple 16 so that it can be easily screwed into a suitable hole in the pi e 14. Within the casing 15 is a chamber 1 and a port or outlet 18 leads from this chamber intothe pipe 14. This I opening or port 18 is controlled by a needle valve 19, the shank 20 of which slides through a gland 21 at the outer end of the casing 15, and the valve is normally closed by a spring 22which is coiled around the.90 -sh'ank 2,0 and abuts with a collar 23. vPorts 24', 25 and 26 of gradually increasing size connect with the chamber 17 and also with a supply chamber 27 through which'slides a; valve 28 which is parallel with they shank 20, and this has ports 24*, 25, and 26*, of 'adually increasing capacity, made sim 1y y grooving the valve 28 circumferentiall and these ports are adapted to register with the ports 24, 25 and 26' respectively, but it will be observed that the valve ports in the casing are arranged so that only one set of ports will act at a time, that is to say, when the ports 24 and 24 are in registry, the

other poi ts will be out of registry, and so on. 105.

' The acetylene is supplied to the chamber 27 from a casing 30,'which has pipes 31 leading into the chamber 27, and the casing 30 has preferably a nozzle-32 to facilitate its easy connection with an acetylene gas supply pipe 33 which can be provided from any source, as for instance a tank 34. The

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parts and 28 are connected by a yoke 35 V canflow through the valve apparatus into the pipe 14, and so to the manifold and to the cylinder of the en ine. When released, the valve 19 automatlcally closes, and the supply can be .made greater or less by opening the ports 24 or 25, or 26*. l have shown this valve mechanism as being the referred and simple type, but it is really y way of example, as my invention is not limited to an particular valve mechanism, as l claim to e the first to use acetylene gas in combination'with a large air supply such as would flow} through the carbureter and controlling mechanism in an internal combustion engine; moreover, as a starting medium itis obvious that the acetylene gas Suppl y can be connected to the en tween the carburetor and the man fold in many difi'erent ways and with many different means of controlling the supply, without afiecting the invention.

In connection with this idea I have shown a simpler form of valve control inFigure 3, in which a single casing 36 is used having a nipple 37 to connect it with the pipe 14: or-the like. The chamber 38 of the easing. connects through a' suitable bore with the nipple end 37 thereof, and a shank 39 slides in the casing through the gland 40, and has a valve 41 controlling the flow of acetylene gas through the casing. The, valve is normally closed b the spiral spriiug 42 coiled around the s ank 39 and abutting with the collar 43. The acetylene, gas supply pi e 33. can connect. with the' casing gine be throug' a suitable connection 44, and obviously the valvel can be retracted in the manner already described, or in any pre ferred way, as it will automatically close.

From the foregoing description it will be seen that I have shown a simple and effective means of using acetylene gas in the cylinders of an internal combustion engine, andthat l have shown means which are peculiarly adapted for starting purposes.

Acetylene gas when improperly used is a very dangerous explosive, and where 'it has been used in'connection with gas engines, in some cases there has been a chance for the gas to accumulate back of the engine connection, so that in case of a back-fire or other cause, a very dangerous explosion takes-place; but in my construction it will be noted that the acetylene controlling valve is placed directly in the carbureter pipe, or

reaaeae in "close connection with the carbureter, and

thenwhen the valve is open, it works auto- ,matically by the action of the engine and manifold, so that it is sucked in with the normal air supply, and operates exactly,

like the gasolene ordinarily used. No additional air pressure is supplied, and no devices to control the acetylene supply, so that the structure is simple, safe, and eficient.

Heretofore where acetylene has been used as a starting medium, it has been rejected for practical purposes, and the chief reason is that-the controlling means for regulating the acetylene supply has been located some distance from the carburetor pipe and'manifold, so that when there was a back-fire from the engine, there would be suflicient acetylene in the supply pipe and under such pressure that disastrous explosions were likely. In fact this has occurred to such an extent that such apparatus has been .con-

demned; but it will be noticed that I place the controlling and self closing valve through which the acetylene passes, directly in connection with the c arbureter pipe 14, so that there is nochancefor 'any accumulation of the dangerously explosive acetylene when under high pressure between the control valve and themanifol'd.

'1. An apparatus of the kind described,-

comprising a casing secured to the intake pipe of an internal combustionengine and having a chamber therein communicating withv the interior of said intake pipe, a spring pressed valve in said chamber, a second chamber in said casing, ports of varying size connecting said two chambers, a valve in said second chamber. and having ports therein, said'ports being of varying size and so arranged that only one'thereot is in registry with one of said first mentioned .ports at one time, means for supplying gas to said second named chamber, and means connecting said two valves whereby the gas supplied to the intake pipe may be regulated as desired and with respect to the ports on said second named valve.

2. An apparatus of the kind described comprising a casing secured to the intake pipe of an internal combustion engine and having a chamber therein communicating with said intake pipe, a spring actuated valve in said chamber, a second chamber in said casing, a valve in said second chamber, ports of varying size connecting said two chambers, a second casing receiving acety-. lene gas, means connecting'said second casing andsaid second chamber and having ports therethrough corresponding in size with said first mentioned ports,,ports in said second named valve corresponding in size with said first mentioned ports but spaced apart a greater distance than the ports connecting said first and second named chambers, and

casing connected to the aforesaid pipe, an

'acetylene'gas supply for the casing, an automatically closing valve for the casing, and a plurality of ports opened and closed by said valve and constructed to permit a regu lated quantity of acetylene gas to pass.

4. In an apparatus of the kind described, the controlling valve mechanism comprising a casing having a chamber therein adapted to connect with the engine, a second chamber to receive acetylene gas, means for supplying gas to the second'chamber, ports of varying size connecting the two chambers, a valve in the first chamber controlling the outlet of gas from said chamber, a valve in the second chamber having Varying size ports to register with the first mentioned ports, and a connection between the two valves whereby they may be worked in unison.

'5. Meal s for admitting acetylene gas to an internal combustion engine, comprising a casing secured to the intake pipe thereof and provided with a plurality of chambers, means for admitting acetylene gas to one of said chambers, a valve in each chamber, means for automatically seating one of said valves, ports of progressively increased size connecting said two chambers, ports of progressively increased size in said other valve and so arranged that when one thereof is in registry with one. of the before mentioned ports the others are out of registry, and adjustable means connecting said tWo valves whereby to regulate the seating and unseating of the automatically seated valve in accordance with the several ports in the other valve.

HERMAN PEDERSEN. 

